Jets Nation Recap: Jets fail to fire in Toronto

The Winnipeg Jets lost against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the most non-Jet fashion: good special teams and bad 5-on-5.

The game started off slow until Korbinian Holzer picked up a penalty for goalie interference. Leo Komarov ended up with a fast break and a quick release on the penalty kill, beating Michael Hutchinson to make it 1-0 for the bad guys.

Jets answered back quickly with a Jacob Trouba goal on the same power play. Mark Scheifele later that period also picked up a power play goal off a great picked-off pass in the slot.

The game continued to go back and forth, with the Leafs getting one, then the Jets, and then the Leafs tying up the game at three a piece.

James van Riemsdyk stopped a 10 game goalless drought with a one-timer from Olli Jokinen in OT to finish the Jets.

Let’s break it down.

Three Keys

Power play – Other than an unfortunate goal against, the Jets power play performed well, as did the penalty kill. The Jets were able to reduce shots against on the PK while generating their own on the power play.

The Jets still created a lot of dumb penalties, but for once not extraordinarily more than the other team did.

Goaltending disasters – Neither goalie has been good as of late, and are definitely not the sole reasons for the loses, but they are not helping. Hutchinson did not play terribly, but not really well enough to be deserving a win or a quality start.

The Jets need one of their goaltenders to step up big if they want to avoid early golfing again.

Jets move elite 5v5 defensemen to forward, get terrible results for 5v5 – The Jets were playing against one of the worst 5v5 teams, who were on the second of a back-to-back situation. The Jets are normally a top ten possession team. Even against Washington they performed well on 5v5.

Byfuglien was lost as a forward and invisible. He can fill a niche as a net presence guy but that’s about it. Jets traded an elite defenseman for an invisible, niche forward. The 5v5 Corsi almost fell hilariously as one would predict given the situation. Although, some confirmation bias warning should be given.